Parking

A great thing about riding is that you can always find a place to park.  One word of caution, don't park too close to a Harley unless you know the rider.  That can end in disaster.

Weather FAIL!!

So yesterday I didn't ride to work.  Not that I don't ride in the rain, it's just that I don't like to ride in tropical storms or possible tornadoes.  Yesterday morning the weather people said that we were going to be smashed all day with a storm moving in from the tropics.  Well... my house got .1", that's right .1".  In case you missed it, THAT'S A PERIOD BEFORE THE NUMBER ONE!!!!!!!!!!!  Anyway, proves once again that you should ignore the weather and just ride.  The weather is gonna do what it's gonna do.

Start 'em early!

If we want more motorcyclists that are good riders, we need to start them on it early.  Both of my kids ride with us.  They have since they were old enough to reach the foot pegs (at least a little) and be trusted to hold on.  As a result, they have grown up with the feeling of leaning into the corner and being aware of the risks.  They both will get their own motorcycle before they get their own car.  I believe that this will make them better riders and more responsible citizens.  Our dream is to take a cross country trip in about 7 years.  We're toying with the idea of doing it on 250s to promote the usability of small displacement motorcycles.  (Maybe I need to lose some weight first.)

RAIN!!!!!

OK, so I haven't made my goal of blogging or riding everyday.  I rode on Friday despite the call for rain.  On the way to work I got dumped on.  I stayed dry enough with gear, so all was good.  On the way home, I somehow managed to miss most of the rain, but soon after I got home, it started to POUR and that continued until this morning in the early AM.  Now I'm not one to avoid riding because of rain, but this was a monsoon with some pretty good wind gusts.  It was the most rain we have had in Florida for decades that wasn't attached to a named tropical storm.  The weather guy said this morning that the only reason it was not named was because named storms develop on the surface and this developed in the atmosphere.  Now, looking out the office window, I see the first sun in days.  Ahhhh.  Good to be back.

Fizzergoo

This was my first street bike.  1993 FZR 600.  Great bike.  Very light, very flickable.  I loved to run the snot out of that thing.  Owned it for about two years.  I had a girlfriend that didn't like riding on the back so I traded for a car.  Worst decision of my life vehicle wise.  I lost the girlfriend and was reduced to riding in four wheels instead of on two.  It still makes me sick when I think of it.  My freshman year I rode this bike from Hobe Sound, Florida to Binghamton, New York.  Talk about saddle sore.  On the return trip, I was riding through a tropical depression from Richmond to Jacksonville.  It was so wet that my gloves bleached dye so much that my fingernails turned back.  The wind was so severe that my rain suite shredded at the seams (not what they are today) so badly that when I finally rode out of it in Jacksonville, I stopped at the Florida visitors welcome center and just threw it away.  Also when it rained, the wet would short something out and not allow the battery to recharge, so when I would stop, I would have to run the bike and dump the clutch to get it started again.  Those were the days.  I still miss her, the bike (the girlfriend, not so much).

Gear

You gotta ride with the right gear.  I used to be a squib, you know: shorts, tee-shirt, no gloves.  Been doing that for 20 years (longer if you include riding off road).  Then I take my wife to the safety-safe class and now I have to ride with long pants, riding jacket, gloves, helmet, and boots that cover my ankle if its just for fun riding.  Well that saved my butt (ankle, actually) this past week.  I'd just topped off the tank and was taking off without looking enough and a truck comes flying across the parking lot in my blind spot.  I was just barely rolling, so when I grabbed a fistful of the front brake, the bike pitched forward to right and I had to stick my foot out to keep from laying it down.  The sudden stop meant that the bike was really torquing and when I stuck my foot down, it tried to roll my ankle.  Luckily I was wearing the boots in the pic and other than a small strain that quit hurting in a few days, I was fine.  Guess my wife was right.

Smeared visor

Riding in the rain is something feared by most riders.  But then again most riders are fair weather hobbyists.  For those of us that commute everyday, riding in the rain is a necessary evil.  If I don't have anywhere to be where I would be embarrassed being wet and its not a thunderstorm, I don't actually mind riding in the rain.  In fact, I sort of enjoy it.  The worst part is visibility.  Rain riding with the visor down causes it to fog making visibility impossible (this is even worse if you are wearing glasses); put the visor up and rain gets on the inside of the visor which you can't wipe away.  The best thing I have found is to crack the visor open about an inch or so and just ride.